There were rave reviews from a number of Democrats about Missouri Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate Jason Kander’s new ad featuring him assembling a rifle blind-folded.
How clever, many Democrats said, to hoist Republican opponent Roy Blunt on his own petard. Blunt, like most Republicans, is the darling of the National Rifle Association, but he is also from a generation of politicians who found ways to get deferments so as to not be drafted into the army (including Donald Trump, Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton and the author of this post). But the younger Kander chose to enlist in the Army following nine-eleven. With his training, he developed the skills to pull off this ad.
However, despite the crafty nature of his ad, two quick questions come to mind: (1) why is Kander glamorizing guns in a society stricken with so much gun violence, and (2) wasn’t he an enabler of unnecessary wars by enlisting in the army at a time when George W. Bush was commander-in-chief? It was pretty apparent from the beginning that Bush wanted to deploy U.S. troops for reasons that had nothing to do with either national interest or humanitarian purposes. I’ll wind up voting for Kander, but he’s certainly decreased my my level of enthusiasm with his fascination with and glorification of guns.